Anyone know how the Summit brand springs compare to the more popular ones such as the sportlines?

 

get moogs and cut em

spohn performance has em

 

Stupid question, but what do you cut them with? Also, how much do you cut them?

 

cut off wheel or angle grinder is good..just dont get the springs hot or theyll get soft



i cut of a coil and a half in the front on my 5665 moog springs..ride is harsh but i have near no body roll..

my rear springs are 4th gen BMR springs with no isolators..

 

Please do a little more research before you start cutting stuff up. There are many threads on this site regarding how people lowered thier cars and the ins & outs of how to do that.

 

Cutting springs is fine as long as you dont torch them. The problem is that the rears are progressive rate, and therefore increase their springrate MUCH faster than the fronts do the more you cut off.

The most you can get away with is about a half coil off the front, and a half coil off the rear + removing the rear spring isolators (replace them with rubber hose around the top coil) if you want to maintain a springrate balance near stock. That's good for about a .75-1 inch drop, depending on the car. If you want to go more than that, you need lowering springs unless you dont mind a really, really harsh ride, wearing out your shocks and struts (unless you get some Konis...) all the time, and dont care about handling performance (front and rear rates need to be balanced).

If you just want to drop it an inch - cut your springs with a cut off wheel - slowly, dont let htem get hot. Cut a little, cut the other a little, wait a couple of minutes, repeat. 15 minutes and you're done. When done properly it does nothing but shorten the spring and increase the spring rate.

Be aware that lowering springs are typically performance oriented (Eibach sportlines, however, are more looks/cruising oriented), and as such have higher spring rates. Usually not as high as cut factory springs (hence they're the "better" option for lowering if you have the money. You get the performance and the look without the rough ride) at the same height, but higher than stock height factory springs. Higher spring rates require better shocks and struts to control them. The lower ride height also compresses the shock more, making it harder for the shocks to control the spring so it makes proper shock/strut selection even more important. Koni's are the best off the shelf shocks, but there are others that are good though. Tokico's, KYB's, etc. They should be able to handle lowering springs just fine if you dont want to shell out for Koni's. Just dont expect parts store gabriels to give you a decent ride. They'll leave you bouncing all over the place.

 

Good info guys! The price for good shocks doesn't bother me, but the $500-600 for struts seems ridiculous when i'm either on the highway or cruisin' around town. If I just put KYB GR2s on the front, is it still worth it to put the bilsteins or konis on the rear?

 

No problem with mix matching different brands front and rear.

For the rear, if you can afford the Koni or Bilstein, I'd do it. You'll notice the back end is very tight on turns, stable when spinning the tires (no sloshing around once the car tries to hook), and flat on long turns like overpasses. Also handles the bumps very well.

For the front, yes the price is MUCH higher than the rears. However, the front is where the biggest difference in feel comes from. Doing the rears makes the back end of the car secure. Doing the fronts makes the front AND the middle of the car feel secure.

Even though I'm a huge Koni Yellow fan, I freely admit that I couldn't just up and buy a full set of front and rear yellows at once. I bought the rears first and then waited a few months and bought the fronts later on.

So I would say do the rears with the good brand. If you think the benefits are worthy, then spend the money later on for the same brand up front. If not, go with a cheaper brand up front. I live in Houston. 4th largest population in the country. And I live near the center of the city. So there isn't much in the way of backwoods country driving that I do. I have to get out of the city to do that. For me, it's mostly commuting back and forth to work (mixture of city and highway). And I still thoroughly enjoy having the Konis in there. To me it's about what others say subframe connectors are like. In that the benefits are noticeable in all situations. I assumed that high end suspension would only be worthwile for all out high speed handling. But I was wrong. It makes the daily drive a joy. Much like driving a Corvette to work compared to driving a Cobalt would be.

it'sMikey (white GTA), you probably have 5662 or 5664 springs up front that you cut. The 5665 are the rear linear springs (107 lb rating)....The 5662 and 5664 are the front springs (700-750 lb rating)

 

It has about 75k miles and hasn't been out of the garage much in the last 11 years. I plan on replacing shocks/struts and springs. Also replacing/upgrading the brakes. Is there anything else I should look at doing while I'm in there? Strut mounts, LCAs, Panhard, etc.

 

Do the brake at the same time, it would be the only good time to go through and replaced suspension bushings and check the tie rod ends for wear.